Generally, an electrical connector includes a dielectric housing mounting at least one electrically conductive terminal therein. The terminal is electrically connected to another circuit component, such as a discrete wire. Connectors often are employed in mateable pairs such that each terminal and the housing of one connector are mateable with a corresponding terminal and the housing of another connector.
The terminals of electrical connectors frequently are very small components, such as components that are stamped and/or formed from thin sheet metal material. A poor quality electrical connection may occur if one or more terminals are not properly seated in its respective housing. The improper seating of a terminal in a housing may occur if the terminal is not fully inserted into the housing during the initial assembly of the connector or if the terminal is vibrated or pulled out of its fully seated condition during use of the connector. Failures of this type are a particular concern in the automotive industry where electrical components are subjected to vibration almost continuously during normal usage and are subjected to direct force during some maintenance. To avoid these problems, the automotive industry often requires connectors to be provided with some form of a terminal position assurance (TPA) system to detect incomplete insertion of the terminals. The automotive industry also generally requires locking means for locking the terminals in the housing, and a TPA system or device also performs this function.
In addition, in some applications such as the automotive industry, the locations of electrical connectors often make it very difficult to accurately align a pair of mating connectors prior to or during mating. This particularly may be a problem where at least one connector in a mateable pair is mounted to a panel that prevents accurate visual alignment during mating or the connector is in a cumbersome or awkward location. A technician may stop the mating of a pair of connectors in response to resistance generated by improperly aligned connector housings. Consequently, guiding means on one or both of the connectors often is desirable to facilitate either blind mating or mating of the connectors in awkward locations, such as in a glove compartment or behind a dashboard of an automobile.
Still further, automotive headliner assemblies typically include a dome light/switch or a glove compartment light/switch combination which have to be connected to the main electrical harness of an automobile. Presently, this is accomplished by mounting the headliner assembly to a sheet metal portion of the automobile and then utilizing a pigtail portion of the harness extending from the headliner assembly terminated in a connector to mate with a connector terminating a pigtail portion extending from the main electrical harness of the automobile. Once the two connectors are mated, they have to be fastened to the headliner assembly, or else the two mated connectors simply "dangle" by the pigtail portions of the wiring. Such assembly or fastening procedures require the use of both hands by a technician, is time consuming and cumbersome, and the two pigtail connectors require additional mounting space.
The electrical connector system of the present invention solves this wide ranging multitude of problems in a connector assembly wherein one of the connectors is adapted for floatingly mounting to a panel to eliminate the pigtail arrangements, and wherein a single component is used to perform dual functions of providing a TPA device as well as a means for guiding a complementary connector into mating engagement with the mounted connector.